Conversations with Writers

Renée Sigel was born in South Africa in 1960. She worked as a fine art columnist for a major daily South African newspaper and as an arts and theatre editor for a lifestyle magazine before political pressure forced her to leave the country in 1994. Her work includes the poetry collection, Sexions: Selections from life and love (Bewrite Books, 2005) and the poetry chapbook,  Falling Slowly  (erbacce press, 2010). Her poems have also been featured in magazines that include nthposition , Voices in Wartime , The Other Voices International Project and Sam Smith’s The Journa l . Renée Sigel currently lives in Italy. In this interview, she talks about her writing:* When did you start writing? I never chose to write. It's very much more a matter of writing choosing me rather than me it. It never came to my choosing or deciding to become a published writer: it happened literally out from under me as it were. I was very young when I was first published and it felt as though...

South African writer, Zukiswa Wanner is the author of The Madams (Oshun Books, 2006); Behind Every Successful Man (Kwela Books, 2008) and Men of the South (Kwela Books, 2010). She is also the founder of the Read SA campaign , a campaign encouraging South Africa to read. Her first novel, The Madams was shortlisted for the 2007 K Sello Duiker Award . In this interview, Zukiswa Wanner talks about her latest novel, Men of the South , which has been shortlisted for the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize : How would you describe Men of the South ? In an age where the world is battling with equal rights, Men of the South is a story of the struggles that modern day man is struggling to come to grasps with despite his apparent advantages over his female counterpart. While, in retrospect, and to most readers, it may appear that my more powerful characters are the first two protagonists, the story was actually a backward thing and came about as a response to the world-famous 2008...

Gary Albyn was born in Zimbabwe in 1960 and currently lives in South Africa with his wife and two children. His poems have been featured the anthologies, Forever Spoken (International Society of Poets, 2007) and The Best Poems and Poets of 2007 (International Society of Poets, 2008). His gift book, Manzovo: Place of the Elephants (30° South Publishers, 2008) is an illustrated 110-verse poem that comes with a DVD of the poem recited by the South African Shakespearian actor, John Whiteley. In this email interview, Gary Albyn talks about his concerns as a writer: When did you start writing? I started writing the poem Manzovo: Place of The Elephants in late 2003. The saga of the matriarchal herd just continued to evolve and develop over a period spanning 14 months. Upon completion, and without any notion of publication, I decided to memorize the story in order to be able to recite it to like-minded audiences; people with an abiding love and respect for our environment and nat...

South African author Zukiswa Wanner has a degree in journalism from Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu, Hawaii. She has contributed material to newspapers and magazines that include the Sunday Independent , Oprah , Elle , Juice and Afropolitan . Her debut novel The Madams (Oshun Books, 2006) explores race relations while her second novel, Behind Every Successful Man (Kwela Books, 2008) looks at what happens when husband and wife roles are reversed. Both novels are set in post-apartheid South Africa. In this email interview, Zukiswa Wanner talks about her writing: When did you start writing? I started writing when I was five. As a prospective published writer though, I was kind of pushed into it by South African writer Lewis Nkosi who had seen some of my opinion pieces and suggested that I should consider writing fiction. I told him I was too much of a realist to write fiction and he told me it was the greatest bull he had ever heard. I thought it a challenge and in ...